police court
1
4.6
- noun
- Archaic
:
tribunal de policía
- As black newspaper editor H. J. Pinkett noted: "So eager are the editors of Omaha's white newspapers to find something degrading in Negro life that the history of the Negro of the city of Omaha is being written very largely from the records of the police court."
Examples
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In fact, police court records reveal that there was proportionately more flogging in Hong Kong than in any country in the world.
Academic text (1997) -
Somebody ought to go and find out what's going on at the police court.
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"A possible motive for the slaying was suggested by the discovery... "...that earlier today, Thornhill appeared in a Glen Cove police court... "...charged with drunk driving with a stolen car... "...and in his defense he charged that the murder victim, Mr. Townsend... "...had tried to kill him the night before."
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After being caught shoplifting, the teenager was taken to the police court the next day.
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The police court handles minor criminal offenses like public disorder.
-
During the hearing, the judge at the police court listened to both sides before making a decision.
Synonyms
∞
1.4
A place where a judge hears and decides legal cases
27
3.6
A court whose decisions can be reviewed by a higher court
2
3.1
A place where a judge hears cases and gives decisions
How Senior
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly composed from 'police' (law-enforcement body) + 'court' (legal forum), so it denotes a court dealing with police matters or minor criminal cases. This is a transparent, compositional compound found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's sense.
Etymology
Police court comes from small courts run by the police, where officers brought people for quick hearings. Because these courts handled 'minor offences' and could send bigger cases to a higher court, the name now means a 'lower court' for small crimes.